The political developments on Friday were not only fun to cover, but amusing to witness. You could tell the age of the person writing the stories by how much they knew about the political process. If they wrote, “NDP to vote against the budget”, they were in their 20s. Those of us with a few years under our belts knew it would never come to a vote. It was obvious that Premier Kathleen Wynne would do what she did and ask permission from the Lt. Governor to dissolve parliament. Our stories read: “NDP won’t support the budget”.
From the media point of view, behind-the scenes, we have three distinct leaders running in the June 12 provincial election. Politics and personalities aside, the way they treat media is very different.
Kathleen Wynne’s right-hand woman is a little judgy and paranoid on behalf of the Premier. In response to a request to talk to her boss, she wants to know if you’ll also be interviewing anyone from the opposition to counter whatever Wynne tells you. She tries to control the process and wants only the Liberal point of view presented, which is not our job. We are tasked with getting the story and in this province that means the Liberal side, the opposition side, and the truth lying somewhere in between.
Andrea Horwath’s people give very little advance notice that the NDP leader will be in your midst for an event. It makes it appear as if her itinerary is set on whims. Sometimes it’s a few days, sometimes it’s hours when you’re alerted that she’s coming. Often times, when you have limited resources and one reporter, her appearance slides by unnoticed.
Tim Hudak is always on the move. His people send out news releases virtually every day, sometimes more than once. It’s a little like the boy who cried wolf. But there’s been a positive change in the Hudak camp which proves that someone on his team understands how media work. Tim’s people offer voice-clips of the leader commenting on a current issue and links to live-streams of his public appearances. This is a brilliant move on their part. Getting the Conservative leader on the phone, one-on-one, is not easy and rarely possible. This change means his voice will more likely get heard in more places, more often. Wynne and Horwath should take note.
So off we go to a June 12 election. That huge high-speed rail announcement worth $29-billion and finally linking Pearson to London? Well, it’s dead on the vine now, as we all suspected it would be. A political analyst this week said he didn’t think any of the leaders have so far distinguished themselves as the one who could truly make changes. So let’s all hold our noses and cast a ballot, like we always do.